Film festival on Phalke awardees to mark centenary of Indian cinema

PUNE: The National Film Archive of India (NFAI) in association with the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and Aashay film club will hold a festival of films and biopics on eminent film personalities who have received the prestigious Dadasaheb Pha|ke award.
The film festival, starting on August 13, has been planned to mark the centenary of Indian cinema.
The Union government instituted the Dadasaheb Phalke award in 1969 to honour an Indian film personality for his or her contribution to Indian cinema.
The first to be given this coveted award was Devika Rani who had acted in several silent and talkie films as well as produced films for 'Bombay Talkies' along with her husband Himanshu Rai.
Since then, a total of 42 Indian film personalities including artistes, directors, producers, cinematographers, music composers, singers and lyricists have been honoured with this prestigious award.
The series on Dadasaheb Phalke award winning films will begin on August 13 and all films will be screened at the NFAI theatre.
The inaugural function will be attended by veteran filmmaker Sai Paraniape at 6 pm.
'Dream Takes Wings', an 18-minute documentary by the Films Division on Dadasaheb Phalke directed by Gajanan Jagirdar, will be screened during the inaugural function.
On the following Monday, the first film to be screened 'Achhut Kanya' will be dedicated to Devika Rani. It was directed by Franz Osten in 1936.
Other recipients of the Dadasaheb Phalke awards include actor and singer Ashok Kumar, filmmaker Satyajit Ray, actor Soumitra Chaterjee, filmmaker Yash Chopra among others.
The last two screenings will be held on October 22 and entry will be on first-come-first-serve basis.